


with every winter's breath.

by spacelamps



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst City, Gen, I promise I love these characters, IM BEING DEAD SERIOUS, RWBY SPOILERS LIKE YALL DONT READ THIS IF YOU HAVENT SEEN EP 12, also i dont.. necessarily ship qrow with clover or summer, and i WILL write them, but i do see why they're shipped tbh lol, clover is only mentioned but he's like.... there??, i just like their friendship dynamic, i just........ angst, so i'm just.. gonna.. leave it the way it is.., summer's death is all speculation; i have my own headcanons for how she died
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22409599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacelamps/pseuds/spacelamps
Summary: it's hard seeing another friend die in an almost identical fashion to someone else you cared about.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen & Clover Ebi, Qrow Branwen & Summer Rose
Kudos: 10





	with every winter's breath.

**Author's Note:**

> if you weren't paying attention to the additional tags: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN RWBY V7 CH12. this contains MAJOR spoilers for the end of that episode.  
> additional disclaimer: everything written in here about summer's death is all speculation. i have no idea how she died but i have _several_ headcanons, so..
> 
> the title of this also comes from a piece i played in wind ensemble back in eighth grade called "with every winter's breath" by randall standridge. my band director told us what the piece meant and we all just kinda went "oh this is depressing as hell."  
> tldr the piece is "Written in memory of a student who tragically passed away, this work celebrates life and the beautiful Colorado landscape she called home" (directly quoted from randall's page). i'm pretty sure she had died in a car accident during the winter time? idk i could be wrong.  
> here's a link if you want it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2lqlj0guqI
> 
> as i said earlier, don't read this if you haven't seen v7ch12.  
> if you have, awesome! keep reading. sorry in advance for all the angst.

he’d witnessed something like this before.

it was buried in the depths of his mind and he forced himself to forget it, over and over again. it was hard, what with her daughter being almost exactly like her and all. rushing into danger, standing her ground, throwing herself head-first into peril because if she wasn’t going to do it, then who would?

he remembered how easily she’d fallen.

his breath froze in the cold air. he should’ve felt cold, should be feeling _something_. but all he felt was numb.

qrow’s mind refused to stop playing back to summer’s death. it wouldn’t listen to him, no matter how hard he tried to forget.

besides, it’s a little hard to forget someone else’s death when someone else you care about is lying in front of you, bleeding out and dying, almost in an identical way to what happened almost twenty years ago.

he remembered how white had turned red, and he remembered being unable to function for weeks on end. _her death_ had caused the rift between himself and his sister.

qrow had to remind himself not to _shut down_ again. he was crying, tears freezing on his face as they fell. clover was _dead_ because he _turned his back_ on tyrian for a single minute. why did he think trusting tyrian was a good idea? he hadn’t forgotten the last time he’d seen the godawful faunus. he was a member of salem’s team, for crying out loud! he had almost _died_ because of him! so why, _why_?

he screamed. no one was around to hear him, just like last time.

james’s forces would be coming in too late, almost like raven had (except raven had been there to witness what happened, but she was too far away to do anything, just like qrow had been _too late_ and _too slow_ _both times_ ).

his weapon was still thrown in the snow from where tyrian had left it. it was still stained with _clover’s_ blood. would he ever be able to use it again without remembering this event? without remembering _this day_?

qrow had thought, for once, that everything was turning around. the kids had become official huntsmen and huntresses. he had found someone new that he could trust and rely on. a new partner that he could fight with! 

but...

he could hear the atlas air force landing somewhere behind him. he was about to get arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, would have never been _able_ to commit (but, of course, that’s just what happens with him and his damned semblance around, isn’t it?). he cared too much for clover, but that’s just… 

was this because of his semblance?

was he simply cursed to watch everyone he ever cared for die? would he be stuck watching them die from a distance, unable to do anything except scream and cry?

brothers, he could really go for a drink right now, but... that addiction was in the past. he refused to fall back into the same habits from when summer had died.

he could hear footsteps crunching in the snow, somewhere behind him to the left. he closed his eyes, ignoring the tears and the cold and he leaned foward, pressing his hands against his face.

he knew what was coming, and there was no running from it. the footsteps had stopped and he hadn’t moved from his position, still crying. his throat was hoarse and he couldn’t even look up to see who was talking to him.

“qrow branwen… you’re under arrest for the murder of clover ebi.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you all for reading!! and sorry for my absence lol i haven't had much muse recently  
> i AM thinking about starting to write for two of my aus again though (that never got put on here) so,,,
> 
> also sorry if this was confusing, i didn't proof it (like at all). i just wrote it bc i had the idea.


End file.
